


Intimacy

by whooshboomtree



Category: Rockman X | Mega Man X
Genre: M/M, asexual Axl, fluff and snuggles and kisses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-06
Updated: 2015-12-06
Packaged: 2018-05-05 06:13:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5364467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whooshboomtree/pseuds/whooshboomtree
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It wasn't that Axl didn't want intimacy in a relationship. He just didn't have any desire for sex to be a part of it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Intimacy

“Zero wait- _stop_!”

Zero physically jumped when Axl jerked away from their kiss and cried out, the blond immediately sitting back and taking his hands away from where they’d started to drift down along Axl’s hips and dangerously close to his upper thighs. Axl was giving his boyfriend a wide-eyed look that Zero couldn’t even begin to read- not exactly scared and not exactly angry, but definitely _upset_. “Ah...sorry, kiddo,” Zero said, settling his hands on the bed at his sides and trying to offer the gunner a reassuring smile. “Too fast?”

To Zero’s surprise, Axl’s expression shifted into something between a pout and a glare, a look that anyone who knew Axl very well would recognize as his ‘I’m about to be unwaveringly stubborn and you can’t stop me’ face. “I don’t get why everyone expects it,” Axl mumbled, dropping his gaze to stare crossly down at his own lap.

“Axl . . .” Zero frowned, reaching up to lightly rest a hand on his boyfriend’s shoulder. “I didn’t mean to upset you, I just got a little . . . overzealous. I won’t do it again.”

“I know you won’t,” Axl sighed, his expression softening slightly even though he didn’t look up. Instead, he flopped down on his back, arms splayed at his sides lazily, only shifting to allow Zero room to lay down next to him. “I just don’t get why it’s so . . . so _important_ to everyone. I mean, to society in general. It’s like this annoying weird expectation that will never cease to confuse me.”

Zero blinked, but after a moment he chose to remain silent, allowing Axl to vent as he pleased. “It’s not you,” the gunner added. “I know you’re not . . . pushy like that. It’s just not exactly something I usually . . . broadcast to people in case they’re gonna be like what the hell why not. And _I_ don’t even know why not. I just don’t . . . do . . . sex stuff.”

“Is it . . . a physical thing?” Zero asked, choosing his words carefully with the knowledge that even an implicit discussion of the word ‘prototype’ was a sensitive topic for the gunner. “Because of-”

“My body?” Axl interrupted. Zero was perfectly aware of the redhead’s less-than-finished body, having walked in on him undressing once and seen the lack of skin covering the hinges of every joint. “Nah. I know _how_ to do that stuff, it’s just not exactly standard. I’ve done it before, but . . .” He shrugged. “Eh.”

“Eh?” Zero echoed.

“Eh,” Axl repeated with a nod. “I mean other than the full system crash when I made myself uh . . . peak, I guess, but I’m pretty sure I could override that if I wanted to. It wasn’t like I thought it was disgusting or anything, there’s just . . . no desire to do it again.”

He sighed, closing his eyes and folding his hands behind his head with a frown. “But everything you hear in society is like nope romance has to have sex or it’s not _real_ romance, it’s just reeeeally close friendship. But . . . what happens if . . .”

There was a long pause, broken only when Zero prompted the gunner with a quiet, “If what, Axl?”

“What happens . . . if two people are really into each other, and they really feel a connection, something way more than friendship, like, making each other’s hearts flutter romantic kind of connection. But one’s interested in sex and the other just doesn’t have a _desire_ for it, like, at _all_. If romance can’t exist without sex, doesn’t that mean that either one person’s gonna have to force themselves to do something that’s gonna be awkward and unpleasant for everyone especially themselves, or they’re both gonna have to break up and move on? Because that’s just . . . stupid.”

Another long silence followed, long enough that Axl finally blinked and turned his head to see Zero looking . . . surprisingly thoughtful. “I never really considered that,” Zero murmured. “But you’re right.”

“I . . . I am?”

“You are,” Zero said with a nod. “It is stupid. Honestly, if a lack of sex is what’s going to break two people up, I don’t think the relationship was going to last long in the first place.”

“One would think,” Axl said, finally managing a half-smile. “And I mean . . . it’s not like I don’t want affection or intimacy. Just . . . not . . . in the form of sex.”

“Axl . . .” Zero reached over to twine their fingers together, giving the redhead’s hand a light, reassuring squeeze. “You know . . . it’s taken a long time for us to get this close. Not to mention a hell of a lot of work.”

“And arguing,” Axl added, Zero’s hand being in his own still making his cheeks warm and his core race with giddy excitement. “And considering it took several years for me to work up the metaphorical balls to even _say_ I was crushing on you . . . even if I did say it on accident . . .”

Zero gave a quiet, amused snort, and Axl fixed him with a glare that would’ve been a lot more threatening if he wasn’t grinning at the same time. “Plus another six or seven months before you agreed to try anything,” Axl went on. “I think ‘long time’ is kind of an understatement.”

“That’s my point, kid,” Zero said with a mild roll of his eyes. “For how much effort we’ve both put into this it’d be pretty fucking stupid to let something like a lack of sex ruin it for both of us, don’t you think?”

“Heh . . . I was really, really hoping you’d say that,” Axl said, shuffling a bit shyly and holding onto Zero’s hand just a little more tightly than he needed to. “But just to go on the record, I do actually really _really_ like kisses.”

“I noticed.” Zero’s lips curved into a slight smirk, the kind that made Axl want to swoon and hit him in the same breath. “And I hope you don’t expect me to stop teasing you about how cute you are when you blush.”

“Not my fault you’re like extraordinarily hot when you’re shirtless,” Axl pointed out. “I said I’m not interested in sex, I never said I don’t find you ridiculously physically attractive.”

“I’m flattered~” Zero leaned in to place a quick kiss on Axl’s lips, grinning when he pulled back and the gunner whined in disappointment. “Am I to assume that noise means you still wanna make out?”

Axl hummed softly, tapping his chin with his free hand and pretending to be deep in thought for several moments before rather suddenly attacking Zero’s face with kisses, giggling the entire time- even more so when Zero began to laugh as well. The blond had a warm, inviting laugh that Axl swore filled his chest with even more butterflies than the hand-holding did. And that was saying something. “The answer was yes, by the way,” he added, allowing Zero to take the lead from there and draw him into a slower, more passionate kiss.

Zero was careful, this time, about where he let his hands roam, still brushing his fingers through Axl’s hair and stroking admiringly along his chest and shoulders, but never daring to try anything suggestive or sexual. Axl seemed to relax significantly after a few kisses, his shoulders loosening and his breaths slowing other than the occasional happy sigh. “Man, Zero,” he murmured in between long, wonderfully warm kisses. “You’re like . . . one of the most amazing beautiful people I’ve ever met.”

“Now you’re just getting sappy,” Zero said, followed by another brief kiss. “But you’re pretty damn amazing yourself, kid. Not to mention easy on the eyes~”

Axl giggled, flushing and squirming in embarrassment and earning another laugh from his boyfriend. “Um . . . Zero? Can . . . can we try something?”

“Axl I told you earlier I’m not breakdancing with you, ever.”

“Not that you dork!” Axl laughed. “I mean . . . I want us to . . . to be able to touch each other’s skin while we make out. Without me shoving my cold-ass hands under your shirt and making you jump.” As he was apt to do whenever they laid somewhere together, usually on purpose and without warning. “Stuff like that is . . . what I think of when . . . when I think of intimacy.”

“I think we can arrange that much,” Zero said with a softer smile, sitting up and tugging his shirt off over his head while Axl did the same in a much less dignified manner. “Not that I’m going to be the one complaining about taking clothes off.”

Axl rolled his eyes, tossing his shirt aside and settling back down in Zero’s arms with a quiet sigh of satisfaction. Zero’s skin was rough, yet comfortingly warm, and as strange as it sounded, he smelled nice. Not that Axl thought he smelled _like_ anything in particular, just . . . nice. He smelled like Zero.

Come to think of it, Axl realized, it was rare for Zero to be this openly relaxed around _anyone_. And that made him proud of himself, in a way; he’d worked his ass off to earn this level of trust from the blond, after all, and they both knew it. Not that being shirtless was exactly the prime height of intimacy, but it did feel . . . special. Besides, one step at a time, right?

And truth be told, Axl was shyly flattered by the way Zero kept stroking a thumb along the exposed joint of his left shoulder, admiring every detail in all of its flawed, unfinished beauty. It made Axl feel . . . special. Not broken and weird and unfinished, but just . . . himself.

“How could I ever ask for a better boyfriend,” Axl sighed out, looking as though he was in complete contented bliss.

“You can’t,” Zero replied, earning a grin from the redhead in his arms. “And neither could I.”

“Best asexual prototype you’ll ever have?”

“By far,” Zero agreed, the next kiss he pressed to Axl’s lips somehow softer and more meaningful than all the others. “You’re one-hundred percent perfectly . . . Axl.” He smiled, feeling every part of himself soften at the almost adoring look the gunner gave him. “Just the way I like you . . .”

“And you’re a stubborn emotionally constipated jackass who takes great pleasure in making fun of me and kicking my ass in every spar we have,” Axl replied without skipping a beat.

Zero laughed in spite of himself, tugging Axl closer and deliberately mussing up the gunner’s hair as payback. “Thanks, kiddo. I really feel the love.”

“Good, you’re supposed to,” Axl said with a smug grin. “Now shut up and keep kissing me.”

“Not gonna argue with that,” Zero murmured, placing a hand on Axl’s chin and drawing him closer to resume their slow, passionate makeout. As much as he liked sex, the blond had something of an unspoken fondness for simple, quiet moments like this, just being able to be close to someone else and relax near them. The kisses and little affectionate touches didn’t hurt either, mind you, but it was nice to be able to have a rare moment where he felt able to truly let his guard down. To be able to feel . . . a connection that didn’t need to be explained with words.

Zero had never been very good with words, after all.

But then again neither had Axl. Maybe that was part of what had drawn them to one another.

The blond wasn’t at all surprised when, some time later, he became aware that Axl was no longer kissing him back, and that the gunner’s breathing and corebeat had slowed significantly as he’d drifted off. “Come on, kiddo,” Zero whispered, settling his arms around his boyfriend a little more comfortably and placing one more kiss on his forehead. “I know I’m boring, but I didn’t think I was actually boring enough to put you to sleep . . .”

He shook his head mildly, laying his head down so that he could get some rest of his own. And just before he closed his eyes, he swore he saw the redhead’s lips curl into a sleepy, contented smile.

 


End file.
